The final day of competition at the Pistol River Wave Bash turned out to be the most memorable in the event’s six-year history — with one pro pulling off a perfect wave en route to a victory over the current tour leader and another reaching deep into her bag of tricks to upset a five-time Wave Bash cham-pion.

To be fair, New Cale-donia’s Sarah Hauser’s victory over “The queen of big winds” Ingrid Larouche is hardly an upset. Hauser has been peaking as of late — winning her second tour event in a row after taking the top spot in Santa Cruz just a week before. She is currently the American Windsurf-ing Tour’s women’s pro division points leader after three events.

“I couldn’t really believe it because Ingrid

is so good. She is the queen of strong winds,” said Hauser regarding her victory. “I was just really, really happy.”

Hauser explained that she has raised her competition level this season by training, both mentally and physically, with men’s pro rider Ferdinando Loffreda, in Maui over the past year.

“I learned a lot of things, not only about windsurfing but how to deal with emotions when you compete, dealing with energy recovery, all those little details that you can only learn when you go compete,” said the third-year pro.

That training paid off at Pistol River, as Hauser knew she would have to be at her very best to defeat Larouche, who trains in Hood River and has never lost at the Wave Bash — winning all five of the event’s previous itera-tions.

“There was a lot of pressure because I know she is used to training in really high winds and that’s not something I’m used to,” said Hauser, whose se-cret to dealing with the pressure was to “love the challenge and have fun in the final.”

The men’s pro final saw two of the sport’s very best face off in a jaw-dropping heat that had the crowd roaring.

In the end, it took a historic ride by Moroc-co’s Boujmaa Guilloul to defeat the AWT’s cur-rent points leader, Ca-mille Juban of Mexico.

Guilloul scored a perfect 10-point wave in the final heat to nar-rowly defeat Juban.

“I’ve never received anything close to 10 while riding,” said Guilloul, who won his first Wave Bash in his third attempt. “I’m very proud of it for sure.”

As it turned out, the 10-point wave was nec-

essary, as Juban, who returned to the tour this year after being injured for the majority of the 2014 season, pulled two double forwards in the final to put the pressure on Guilloul.

The Moroccan re-sponded with the wave of his career — com-pleting several linking turns on a mast-high

wave before finishing with a huge Wave (in-verted) 360.

“I was really happy. I was not really expecting to win because I knew Camille is a great sailor. I was really stoked,” said Guilloul, who is now in second-place in the tour standings behind Juban.

“I’ve known Boujmaa

for a long time. We’ve competed a lot,” said Juban. “You want to win no matter what or no matter who it’s against, but he is my friend and I was very happy for him.”

Guilloul attributes his success to an increased mental toughness.

“When you are at peace inside yourself, then the brain and body follow as well,” he said. “Competition has become as much fun as freesailing to me.”

ResultsMen’s Pro: Boujmaa

Guilloul, 1st; Camille Juban, 2nd; Morgan Noireaux, 3rd.

Women’s Pro: Sarah Hauser, 1st. Ingrid Larouche, 2nd. Katie McAnena, 3rd.

Masters: Sean Aiken, 1st; Jeff Albright, 2nd; Attila Tividar, 3rd.

Grandmasters: Dwight Bode, 1st; James Lundin, 2nd; Colby Deer, 3rd.

Amateur: Jake Schettewi, 1st; Jeff Albright, 2nd; Yohann Burette, 3rd.

Youth: Jake Schettewi, 1st; Max Schettewi, 2nd.

For a few blustery days each June, the world’s windsurfing stage veers toward Eagle Rock, on the Pis-tol River shoreline.

“Everyone loves to come here and sail, to rip it up, to take advan-tage of what we have,” Harbor native Luke Mathison said. “It’s a big playground.”

The bearded Mathi-son, a 20-year-old Curry County wind-surfing veteran, stood atop the dunes at Pis-tol River State Park, buffeted by near-gale

force winds. He smiled as he watched another professional windsurf-er launch 30 vertical feet off another large wave.

“We’ve always had good conditions for this event,” he said, “but this year has been ex-ceptionally good.”

For a Pistol River resident like James Lundin, the Wave Bash is akin to having the-Super Bowl or World Cup in his front yard.

“It provides us with a great opportunity to watch some of the best sailors in the world perform,” he said just

minutes before his final Grandmasters-division heat. “It inspires us greatly to try to achieve more than we already do. It also gives sail-ors the opportunity to spread the word about this area. It’s a nice place to come and hang out for anyone who enjoys recreation, because it’s not just about windsurfing here. There are lots of other

things to do.”Lundin’s good friend,

Dwight Bode, who lives just north of Brookings and won the Grand Master’s division in this year’s contest, agreed.

“The Wave Bash is a great event that brings a lot of people out to watch what we re-ally do out here,” Bode said. “People forget that it’s much more

than just a beautiful coastline. People come from all over the world to sail here. It’s an epic place.”

Ted Eady, owner of Inn at the Beachcomb-er, which provided lodging for many Wave Bash competitors, explains the event is growing and shines a light on the county.

“We’ve had a bunch of happy people here,” he said. “And I noticed there were more rooms booked by visitors who came specifically to watch the event. Any-thing you can do to put Curry County in some

sort of international spotlight is good.”

Ultimately, the Wave Bash has the feel of a communal, grassroots exhibition, aided in large part by Pistol River’s Dana Miller, a windsurfer for more than three decades.

“It puts us on the map,” Miller said, grinning. “Not that the place isn’t already on the map. You can walk into a bar in Nepal and they’ve heard of Pistol River. It’s legendary in windsurfing circles. This place has every-thing going for it. It’s a windsurfer’s dream.”

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 Ryan Sparks, sports editor • 541-469-3123 • rsparks@CurryPilot.com • @rsparkspilot

Sports Outdoors6A

Historic rides to take pro titles2015 Pistol River Wave Bash

“You can walk into a bar in Nepal and they’ve heard of Pistol River. It’s legendary in windsurfing circles.”— Local windsurfing great Dana Miller

By Michael KewSpecial to the Pilot

Wave Bash’s impact can be felt near and far

■■ Moroccan native Boujmaa Guilloul scores perfect 10-point wave to take men’s title; New Caledonia’s Sarah Hauser wins second tour event in a row by knocking off five-time Pistol River champ Ingrid Laroche.

By Ryan SparksPilot staff writer

Photo by Mark Harpur/American Windsurfing Tour (www.luckybeanz.com)

Sarah Hauser dethroned the five-time Pistol River champion Ingrid Laroche to be-come only the second woman ever to win the Wave Bash women’s pro division title.

Photo by Mark Harpur/American Windsurfing Tour (www.luckybeanz.com)

Morocco’s Boujmaa Guilloul scored a perfect 10-point wave en route to a victory over current tour points leader, Camille Juban, in the final heat of the men’s pro division.

Photo by Mark Harpur (www.luckybeanz.com)

Sarah Hauser (right) holds up her first place trophy as Ingrid Larouche congratulates her during Saturday’s Pistol River Wave Bash awards ceremony.